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Bakugou managed to corner Half-n-Half at the end of the hallway after the tedious physical check up with Recovery Girl was over. Winter Internships apparently meant obligations that involved having all student’s progress and process closely monitored by the Academy. It was irksome, of course. Not the level of security that was maintained on UA’s part as it related to minors. Rather the inept methods they insisted on using, placing emphasis on the physical than mental.
He wouldn’t be so concerned about ineptitude of the Academy if he didn’t witness the impact of it on his classmates. Yaoyorozu, that is.
The blond spotted her crying by herself at one point at the outskirts of the training field of a mock-metropolitan city. He had approached her, but she brushed him off with a practiced smile and furiously wiped the tear tracks from her cheeks.
It was a bit of a foolishness on his part for actually believing he could approach someone when he usually confronts others most of the time. The permanent furrow of his eyebrows didn’t help at all if his reflection in the mirror was anything to go by. Perhaps it would have been better to not say anything to begin with. If he had a bit more self-awareness as Kirishima jovially liked to point out, asking others for advice in talking with others would have been the best thing to do.
But who was he kidding? Bakugou Katsuki wasn’t one that asked others for advice. He designed his own Quirk strategies himself, learned his subjects himself, took care of all mundane tasks involving him by himself, all in respect of the higher ideal his mother took upon herself to instill in him - self-sufficiency.
Self-sufficiency was restrictive, not ever permissive to accept the help of others.
He wondered if Yaoyorozu ever felt the same in that moment, as Vice-Representative. On second thought, it wasn’t entirely unlikely. Though it didn’t matter if he pondered on that now when the time already past itself.
For even if Bakugou’s attempt to comfort Yaoyorozu failed, the CCTV of the campus grounds noted the discrepancy that involved extended visits to the training fields by the Class Representative. The close monitoring of students on the grounds was almost like having a tracker on your person at all times. The confrontation of the raven-haired girl that the afternoon after practically public when EraserHead came to the dorm pointedly asking for her. Their classmates chattered excitely at the change as Yaoyorozu went outside. It didn’t help the privacy aspect when they had floor length glass windows either.
Bakugou spotted the sheepish smile as she eased a tense situation with her graceful decorum. Their teacher didn’t look convinced but gave her a pass akin to a VIP ticket to any of the training grounds she wished if she wanted to use them. It was a half-assed attempt on their teacher’s part but Bakugou knew that even if it was, he shouldn’t expect anything better from UA higher ups and that was solely EraserHead’s actions rather than the school’s care for possible future mental instablity.
Bakugou sighed that day and returned to his dorm room early. He understood completely then that these new living arrangements were perhaps the excess of what UA might do to offer protection, so long as it was physical. It was all for the student’s sakes to withstand these difficulties themselves on the course to become the Number One Hero after all. Emotions were nothing.
Things never really weighed on Bakugou Katsuki’s mind. Not the pressure of grades, exams, performance or heroic achievements. Situations that caused worry were rare and he always had been one to believe that there’s no need to worry over situations when you have agency in the circumstances. And, right now, he didn’t have as much agency as he would have originally liked. Not after that incident with Yaoyorozu and not after the realizatiion that creeped up after.
This situation involved another person. And, it wasn’t a person like Kirishima or Kaminari who he could casually interact with and let loose a few swear words in minor regard for any serious repercussions. After all, Bakugou Katuski wasn’t going to go out of his way to coddle anyone in a gentle manner with soft words and easygoing nature.
He was a boy and boys will be boys, especially when speaking with other boys.
This couldn’t apply to girls.
Said girl went by the name Momo Yaoyorrozu who spoke in a gentle manner with graceful decorum and exceptionally capable of easing tense situations with a sheepish smile.
Bakugou was in a dilemma when the said girl turned out to be a person he had a certain… affinity for - in a non-platonic way.
It was as if the big man upstairs decided it was about time he made Dynamight’s life miserable with his indecisiveness on how to approach her.
“So, you need help to talk to Yaoyorozu-san.” Todoroki asked, sipping at his cherry juice from the small carton.
Bakugou didn’t hide his obvious irritation. He already spent two minuted by the other’s side waiting for him to make up his mine on the size and flavour of the drink he should choose from the vending machine. “That ain’t it. I have a problem concerning her.”
The other tilted his head, “Usually when people have problems concerning another person, they talk to reach a solution.”
The blonde scoffed at the increduility of that simplistic statement. “And you believe that?”
“No.” Todoroki’s answer was immediate. “It’s what Midoriya says.”
Bakugou stared at the other, a blank expression on his face. The other mirrored the same, noisily sipping on the last of his juice that was bubbling up his plastic straw.
“You don’t know shit what to do huh?”
Shouto Todoroki blinked, and as if pointing a figurative finger at the blonde, he answered. “You don’t have the slightest idea either, Bakugou-san.”
The duo resolved to meet up later that afternoon in a secluded area away from their classmates’ eyes. Only seclusion didn’t necessarily mean quiet and their first choice of a meeting place was too crowded for Bakugou’s liking due it being the weekend. So came the second choice, which was Todoroki’s original choice.
Currently, they were at a place off-campus, having come off at the last stop of the bus route that went directly to UA. That last stop was conveniently located at the valley of a mountain range that was supposedly at the edge of the city. The bus driver gave them a dubious look as they got off, clearly skeptical of the last two occupants that remained in his bus for the last hour and a half silent and awkward.
Shouto didn’t blame him. They weren’t exactly exhibiting a friendly, amiable aura when they came on. Bakugou had insisted on having both of them don a mask and hat to mask their notable features, The duo both looked like a couple of amateur villains on their way to commit their next crime. Shouto swore he saw the child next to him inch closer to his sibling at their presence as the older teenager glared at him for daring to look at their direction when they boarded halfway through the route.
Now that the journey was over and the teenagers quickly tapped their cards on the automated machine at the front, the bus driver merely sighed, muttering something about teenagers and their idiotic courage tests before leaving.
Shouto was confused. Before he looked up at the name of the bus stop that they got off at. It had some old kanji characters that he couldn’t quite read but there was a subtext right under it, with an arrow pointing a certain direction, pointing the way to the kitsune shrine.
His eyes widened momentarily as he came to look in the direction where the arrow pointed. There was a shrine gate there, its paint a bit faded with a stone staircase leading up the mountain.
Next to him, Bakugou cursed, clearly not expecting this latest development.
Shouto blinked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously, before asking, “Bakugou-san, are you afraid of ghosts?”
His classmate only became more irritated. “I ain’t scared!” He all but exclaimed. After a glance in Todoroki’s direction, he added with a quiet voice. “I didn’t expect there to be a shrine here.”
Shouto wanted to point out that the name of the stop was there on the route description all the time. But that would involve him questioning Bakugou’s awareness which would only aggravate theo other teenager further. They both knew that the blonde wasn’t really paying attention to the route destination when they came on, muttering something about suspense and dubiousness involving them getting off at the last bus stop, before Bakugou sat at the back and stared out the window, deep in thought.
“Let’s go up.” He said.
“Why?” Shouto asked immediately.
The blonde motioned to their surroundings. “Well, we can’t stay on the road.”
“We could just wait for the next bus going back and stop by that convenience store we passed. It’s not as if we expected it to get cloudy so soon.”
Bakugou tsked. “I ain’t unloading the shit I have to say at a convenience store.” He looked up at the Shrine, a flask of hesitation in his eyes.
Shouto was quiet, taking in his partner’s actions before giving a suggestion. “Do you want to hold hands?”
Bakugou looked at him increduously.
“It helps with anxiety. Uraraka said so.”
“No one is holding hands!” Bakugou punctuated, and as if showing the extent of his resolve, promptly shoved his hands in his jacket pockets before trudging towards the shrine.
The half-blue, half-grey eyed teenager was disappointed as he pulled back his outstretched hands and moved to follow his classmate.
Bakugou was still slightly frowning when Shouto caught up to him. Not in the perturbed manner he dismissed the elemental Quirk user next to him but more so as if he was in deep thought about his next words or actions. Of course, Shouto didn’t possess a natural innate talent for identifying other people’s state of mind, but he’d like to think that he knew more of Bakugou after working with hiim on that abandoned island adventure recently.
Sure enough, they were halfway up when Bakugou broke the silence, asked him something mundane in an attempt to make conversation. “How did you get to know this place?”
No doubt about it. Bakugou probably believed Shouto chose the last bus stop deliberately because of the undeniable distance. Not that it was so farfetched of an idea. Shouto may have been a bit unaware at times but he could recognise that even Bakugou had a difficult time finding the right words to convey the genuinity of what he had to say.
“My mother used to come here occasionally. Apparently one of her childhood friends had been a shrine maiden here.”
Bakugou hummed and looked around. The surrounding around them were bordered by large trees, their overreaching branches tilting over the stone steps. It had grown a bit darker due to the cloudy weather above, so it was difficult to spot any defining features of the surroundings that might have extended beyond that of the trees on either side of the staircase. Not that it mattered when it was most likely a forest of clustered trees that extended beyond that as well.
“It has been abandoned for sometime.”
Shouto nodded absentmindedly. He was ahead now, directing the other as he gradually remembered the spread of his surroundings. “Yes. She passed away in that villain attack on Shibuya train line the other day.”
“Ahh. Sorry about that.” Bakugou apologized.
The other sighed, as if already expecting something of the like. “It couldn’t be helped. And, it wasn’t as if we were particularly close so that’s fine.”
Silence enveloped them once again as they walked briefly without speaking.
They offered incense to the shrine and sat at a spot inside the shrine. They lit some lanterns
“It’s about Yaoyorozu.”
“What about her?”
“I don’t like how they spoke about her in the locker room that other day.”
Shouto immediately knew what he was talking about.
It wasn’t a pretty locker room encounter. Kaminari, Kirishima and Sero were there along with Bakugou and Shouto.
The trio had been speaking about this new upcoming actress that was popular these days, later turning to other young actresses to their own classmates. Bakugou and Shouto had both been minding their business up to that point. The conversation was mostly led by Kaminari and Sero after all. And, it wasn’t until Kirishima chimed in with their comments that Bakugou decided to lend an ear to their foolish conversation.
“Yaoyorozu is something right?” Sero piped up.
“Yeah. She doesn’t really have the classic figure.” Kirishima said.
“But she does have something the others don’t.” Kaminari claimed. They looked at him, as he wagged his eyebrows and motioned to his chest with vague movements. The trio laughed as Kaminari continued. “Honestly, I’m surprised they keep themselves covered with that hero suit of hers.”
Their comments were becoming much more lewd and Shouto was just about to interfer when Bakugou slammed his locker door shut, capturing the attention of all the occupants of the room. His expression was blank, eyes cold and it was incredibly intimidating having to face him when the fire was absent from his features.
His words were curt, monotonous in tone and scary. He dessimated their behaviour with carefully articulated sentences and by the time the two minutes were over Kaminari was crying, Sero was shivering and Kirishima was shocked. Shouto blinked, the only one not influenced by Bakugou’s attitude having faced his father too many times to count.
Bakugou looked at hiim then, a bit more heat returning to his face before making a “Tsk”, grabbing his bag to exit the room.
“Are they making those comments again?” Shouto asked.
Bakugou scoffed at the idea. “Hell no. That time scared them off for good.”
Shouto furrowed his eyebrows, “Then?”
The blonde looked shy and shifted in his seat slightly, averting his eyes. “I.. like her.”
The other teenager blinked, taking a moment to ensure he didn't misunderstand. “As in a sibling way or ?”
Bakugou looked more exasperated than irritated. “Did you smoke something before coming here or what? No, I do not like her in a sibling way!”
Shouto coughed slightly before averting his own eyes as he made his second inquiry. “So, like in sexual way?”
He could feel the tense glare that was focused his way before hearing an audible huff on the blonde's part. It was an inquiry he regretted the moment the words left his mouth. The scene of the boys locker room from that day was vivid in his mind, capable enough to make him momentarily scared on his lapse.
The tone that followed was much more quiet and embarrassed than Shouto could have anticipated.
“No. I like her but not in a sibling way or sexual way.”
They became quiet and Shouto was almost inclined to ask if he wanted to become a good friend to Yaoyorozu like he was before Bakugou blatantly said for him not to say anything further.
Of course. That was offensive but after the many strikes that Shouto had made within the last half an hour, he was just about to disagree.
Bakugou swore under his breath, muttering little about how inane this situation was to begin with before beginning once again. Shouto had turned his gaze back to the blonde at this point, quiet as a listener should be. Although, the dual Quirked user should have been solely listening in the first place.
“I like Yaoyorozu as a romantic partner but not as a sexual partner.”
Shouto immediately violated the no response clause of the ideal listener as an audible “Oh" escaped his lips.
The pitter patter of the rain enveloped the silence of the room as the smell of petrichor wafted through the air.
“So, you’re ace then.”
“What?”
“An ace.”
Bakugou looked at him blankly.
“Apparently it’s when you have feelings for someone else but don’t want to sleep with them. Iida told me."
He really had a talent for bringing up the sources for his subjective claims as Bakugou took to addressing in his response. “Wow, you really just take all the information you get huh?”
Shouto merely gave a small shrug and leaned back. “I’m told that’s the most efficient way of learning.”
“You really need to get more experience being the one that talks than listening.”
“I see… Would you like me to talk now?”
“Hell no. Conduct that experiment later.” The blonde was clearly fed up at this point, massaging his temples as he talked. “Anyway I need to make my claim first.”
That seemed like a red flag from personal experience and Shouto was genuinely confused. “Why would you need to claim her?”
Bakugou paused, almost unsure himself due to the undeniable negative connotations of territorial behaviour. He made an offhand explanation that seemed dry and regurgitated from another source. "People need to see a claim to restrain themselves around a person. I don’t want other people like Kaminari to say things like that.”
“Shouldn’t you want to be in a relationship with her because you like her though? Not because you want people to stop saying things like her.” It wasn't as if the explanation wasn't plausible and Bakugou does pride himself for being strong. He fitted perfectly with the alpha male mold in those manga comics Shouto had picked up from Natsuo's room.
“Yes, but they’ll also stop saying things and I want her to be respected.”
“I respect Yaoyorozu.”
Bakugou frowned. “But usually they respect women more when they have that protection.”
“That’s not true.”
Bakugou paused as if rethinking things.
“I do like her genuinely.”
Shouto waited for him to continue.
“But, I don’t think she would feel the same.”
Shouto’s eyes widened. To think that the root of the dilemma lay in that aspect.
“So, should you confess to her but get rejected, you could easily shift the blame to the other guys to save face."
“Don’t say it like that!” Bakugou hissed.
Shouto snorted before chuckling. “That is a horrible self-preservation method.”
“It’s not as if I could tell her I like her but prefer not to be intimate with her. She’ll think she’s being put on a back burner."
“Then just tell her upfront.”
Bakugou went to respond, evidently livid, before Shouto quickly continued.
“But that's not even the main problem."
The blonde closed his mouth, his eyebrows still furrowed but attention captured by Shouto’s words.
Shouto sighed. "Even if you want to preserve a certain level of self-respect because of that method, Yaoyorozu would still feel hurt after she rejects you and you'll be no different than the others in that locker room that day. Only this time, you'll be directly hurting her."
Bakugou paused, taking that in. “What do you know about Yaoyorozu?”
“Me?”
He nodded. “She's closer to you than most other classmates.”
Shouto taught about it. “That’s because I treat her equally I guess.”
Bakugou was clearly not happy with that statement. “You guess?”
“Yaoyorozu really tries hard at everything she does but doesn’t get enough recognition for it. She doesn’t need validation but she does appreciate it when she is connected with.”
It wasn't as implausible. Anyone who looked close enough could see that. Bakugou was no exception. “Yeah. She is a hard worker.”
Shouto looked at him, curious. “You haven’t really connected with her before, have you?”
Bakugou grunted, “I try not to since I mostly scare people off.”
“Then don’t.”
Their eyes met.
“Don’t stop and refuse to talk to her just because of that. I know for a fact that Yaoyorozu really admires you so she wouldn’t chase you away. If you like her, then why don’t you speak to her and confirm your feelings?”
“I don’t need to confirm any feelings. I like her and want to date her.”
Shouto sighed. He still didn't want to touch on it. “Then give her hints.”
“Hints?”
“Fuyumi says that small actions indicate larger emotions between people.”
“You’re comparing me to your sister’s preschool class.”
“You’re the one that came to me for advice.”
“Fair enough.”